


A Gentle Repose

by Benfrosh



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/F, Hypnosis, Hypnosis therapy, Therapy, as is my wont - Freeform, i've been anxious so i'm working my anxiety out in fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:01:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23652025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benfrosh/pseuds/Benfrosh
Summary: Fa'leon's been a pent-up ball of stress for the last month, and Y'shtola's had enough of it.
Relationships: Y'shtola Rhul/Warrior of Light
Kudos: 37





	A Gentle Repose

Fa'leon fidgeted in a plush chair, tail curled around her lap, as she anxiously glanced around Y'shtola's inn room. "Shtola, you know I love helping you out, but how long is this gonna take? I've got some jobs to do later today..."

Y'shtola slowly leafed through a large spellbook, showing no signs of any rush. "Just a few moments longer, dear. You'll hardly notice at all."

Fa'leon sighed. "Sorry to bug you when I'm the one who volunteered to help, it's just- sorry, I'm just whining. I'll stop bugging you and let you finish up." She took a deep breath and tried to focus, failing miserably to hide her nervous energy.

"Perfectly alright, dearest." She carefully turned another page, finger tracing the ink so she could read the descriptions without wasting her precious energy on seeing. "What's got you so in a tussle, anyways?"

Fa'leon's mouth opened to answer, but closed itself before saying a word. "Just... stupid stuff. You don't have to worry about it, I'm dealing with it."

Y'shtola nodded without looking. "Fair enough." She could feel Fa'leon's surprise at her not following up on the line of questioning. 

"... so, yeah," Fa'leon continued uselessly. "So is it going to be much longer?" 

Y'shtola closed the heavy tome with a thud and turned to face Fa'leon, mischievous glee plain on her face. "I think I've got the last of it prepared. Are you prepared to be a guinea pig?" she asked as she pulled out her staff.

Fa'leon nodded quickly and immediately, but caught herself as she thought more. "Wait, guinea pig? I thought you said you needed my help with gatheri-"

"Repose II."

As Y'shtola's staff glowed with aether, Fa'leon's fidgeting immediately came to a halt. Y'shtola watched Fa'leon's reactions carefully as she settled back in the chair, her arms coming to rest in her lap as her tail relaxed and fell to her side. Her ears, previously poking straight up, were now drooped forward, all tension drained from them. Fa'leon's breathing steadied into long, deep breaths, inhale followed by exhale, as she settled into what seemed for all the world like a deep, comforting sleep.

But - and this was the crux of Y'shtola's research - Fa'leon's eyes were still wide open.

Taking a notebook with her, Y'shtola pulled a stool up in front of Fa'leon's chair as she turned off her magical vision once more. "Fa'leon? Can you hear me?"

"... yes," Fa'leon replied drowsily.

With a flick of her wrist, Y'shtola cast a quick spell to begin scribbling her thoughts down in the notebook. "Can you move your head at all? Say, to nod?"

Fa'leon paused for several seconds before replying. "... no... neck too relaxed... don't wanna."

Y'shtola smiled as her notebook continued to fill itself in. "What's two plus two?"

Fa'leon paused even longer this time, and Y'shtola feared for a moment she might have overloaded her poor girlfriend's brain. "... four."

Y'shtola breathed a sigh of relief. Next, to test recollection. "What's two plus two?"

"... four." Faster this time, with only a second pause.

"What's two plus two?"

"four." The reply was near instant this time, if still just as soft and drowsy, as the answer was now close at hand, if Y'shtola's research was correct.

"What was the last question I asked you?"

"... if I wanted to be your guinea pig."

Y'shtola couldn't help but smile at that. So even in the trance, Fa'leon couldn't recall memories of what had just happened, but she did have the ability to pull information into her active memory and she did have the ability to recall older memories. "And how did that make you feel?"

"... how did what make me feel?"

Y'shtola rubbed her forehead in frustration. Okay, maybe she needed to adjust the spell for a _bit_ more active memory retention, or questioning was going to be very frustrating indeed. She debated changing things up now, but decided against it. There was still more important information to collect. "How did it feel knowing I wanted you to be my guinea pig for a magical experiment?"

"... surprising."

"Why surprising and not scary?"

"you'd never do anything scary to me. always safe with you."

Y'shtola smiled, before considering the implications. So Fa'leon could continue a conversation thread if she replied quickly enough... she wondered if she could abuse that to carry a particular kernel of knowledge across the memory retention boundary by pulling it to active memory constantly. She made a note to follow up on that next session - too boring to do right now, and not particularly relevant. "How do you feel right now?"

"... safe. happy. relaxed. i'd be grinning if i could."

Y'shtola grinned in turn. "Good. I made this spell to help you relax, you know."

"thank you. haven't been able to relax in weeks."

"Now why is that? I've noticed that too."

Fa'leon paused as she gathered her thoughts. "scared. scared everyone is stronger than me, and i won't be able to keep up."

"You're the Warrior of Light, dear. How in the world could anyone be stronger than you?" Y'shtola replied chidingly.

"the other adventurers i fight with... they're amazing. they do things i feel like i never could. i'm constantly obsessed with planning how to keep up and praying they can't pull ahead."

Y'shtola grimaced. "So that's why you've been pulling in so many jobs lately?"

"... yeah." Y'shtola couldn't tell if the pause was due to recollection again or just embarrassment. "trying to make enough gil to afford better gear. was chatting with one of them last month and he has tens of millions of gil saved up. don't know how i can keep up."

Y'shtola reached out to take Fa'leon's hand in her own. "Haven't you always been taking the lead on everything? I haven't heard of anyone taking on anything before you."

"... what if one day though i can't? what does that make me then? i'm scared that one day i'm not going to be strong enough and then no one will need me and-" As Fa'leon's fears continued to spill out, Y'shtola could feel the muscles in her hand tensing up. "- i'll be a relic of the past and i'll be a failure and no one will want me and why should I even bother-"

"Fa'leon, stop."

With those two words, Fa'leon's torments immediately stopped, and her muscles began to relax once more. With a sigh of relief, Y'shtola noted down - responsiveness to commands, check. "How are you feeling now?"

"... safe. happy. relaxed. i'd be grinning if i could."

Y'shtola chuckled. Blank slate once more. "Fa'leon, this next statement is extremely important. Remember it even when you wake up."

"... okay."

"You are amazing." Y'shtola squeezed Fa'leon's hand in support. "You've done so much that no one else could. You are continuing to do amazing things every day. You do not need to push yourself harder to 'keep up.' You are doing just great as is, and no one can ever take that away from you. I promise that things are going to be okay, and that even if the absolute worst came to happen and someone does become stronger than you, things will still be fine. I've never seen you fail to surmount an obstacle, and I'll always be here to help you overcome it. I swear."

"... okay."

Y'shtola waited for the memory to fade away, taking the time to play with Fa'leon's fingers, feeling each one between her own. "Fa'leon, are you still scared of someone being stronger than you?"

"... no. because you'll always be there to help me overcome any obstacle."

Y'shtola softly smiled. "Good." She offhandedly made a note about memory implantation working, but that was clearly secondary to her main goal of helping Fa'leon finally relax. "Are you ready to wake up now?"

"... don't wanna. feels good. but i promised i'd help these new adventurers in the source in an hour. so i probably should."

"Yes, you should. Thank you for sharing so much with me, Fa'leon." 

With another glow of Y'shtola's staff, energy surged once more through Fa'leon's body, and her eyes lost their glazed expression. "-ng spell ingredients... hey, when'd you get over here?" Fa'leon asked, continuing smoothly from where she left off. 

"Oh, you know. Between blinks," Y'shtola answered mischievously.

Fa'leon's eyes narrowed. "You already did something to me, didn't you?"

Y'shtola grinned. "I may have. Do you remember what?"

Fa'leon rubbed her chin in thought. "... no, I can't. I just have a weird stutter where you were over there at the desk, then suddenly over here."

Y'shtola made a note to try to blur the most recent memories before and after to make the experience more seamless next time. "Okay, I have one deep personal question to ask you, if that's okay."

Fa'leon nodded hesitantly. "Sure, I guess. You already know everything about me anyways, just... be gentle."

Y'shtola smiled confidently as she patted Fa'leon's hand reassuringly. "I always try to be. Are you scared that someday, someone is going to be stronger than you?"

Fa'leon opened her mouth to answer, before stopping in confusion. "... by the Goddess, you absolute _minx!_ " she finally answered, laughing as she did. "You _hypnotized_ me!"

"Now hold on just one minute!" Y'shtola countered, holding her hands up in self defense as Fa'leon jokingly slapped at her. "It was entirely done to help you!"

"You could have just _asked!_ "

"But that would have taken all the fun out of it!"

The two play fought for some time, as Y'shtola dodged several pillows tossed her way, before they finally settled down. "Thank you, though," Fa'leon finally said to break the silence. "I really do feel a lot of my anxiety gone now."

Y'shtola grinned ear to ear. "That's a relief to hear. And to feel as well, I imagine."

"I'm sorry that I couldn't be that honest with you directly... I know you've said you'll always be there for me to talk to, I just think sometimes..." Fa'leon trailed off, scratching behind her ears as she thought. "Sometimes it's hard to even know what's wrong in the first place, you know?"

Y'shtola nodded. "That's why I wanted to help in the first place. Plus your sleep has been absolutely atrocious lately - I figured a cat nap couldn't hurt much at all."

Fa'leon sheepishly smiled. "I guess my nerves have been a bit more obvious than I thought, huh?" Before Y'shtola could answer, though, Fa'leon leaned forward and brought Y'shtola into a deep kiss, the two reveling in the company of each other. "... so," Fa'leon asked as they finally parted, "any chance we could do this again next week? I think I have a few other issues I'd like your help with."

Y'shtola felt a blush go through her entire body - whether at the kiss or the opportunity to experiment on her girlfriend more, she couldn't say. "Absolutely."

**Author's Note:**

> This was partly a challenge to myself to write a non-erotic hypnosis fic. I like what I came up with!


End file.
